August – 2019 – Mondoweiss

An ’NY Times report hides the truth: Israel’s airstrikes across the Mideast are arguable intended to sabotage Trump-Iran talks
James North on August 29, 2019
▻https://mondoweiss.net/2019/08/airstrikes-designed-sabotage

(...) In Lobelog, the distinguished researcher Sina Toossi did the Times’s work for it. His headline tells the story: “Israeli Strikes Seek to Bait Iran and Scuttle U.S.-Iran Diplomacy.” Toossi points out that “the timing of the Israeli strikes suggests that they are at least partly aimed” at stopping Trump from following up on the peace feelers that French President Emmanuel Macron put out at last weekend’s G7 meeting.

Maybe the Times doesn’t trust Sina Toossi. But what about yesterday’s editorial in Haaretz, the respected Israeli newspaper, which raised the same suspicions about Netanyahu’s true motivations? The paper said simply and clearly:

Now Netanyahu is confronting a change in direction in Trump’s policy, which is reflected in an attempt to arrange a meeting and reach an understanding with the Iranian leadership. . . These circumstances explain Netanyahu’s decision to escalate Israel’s military activity against Iran and its proteges in the region. . .

The Times propaganda article rattled on for 43 paragraphs without a single mention of Netanyahu’s incentive to sabotage the possible Trump-Iran detente. Again, is this deliberate bias — or just incompetence?

It’s fine to criticize Israel (so long as you say it’s a vibrant democracy and leave out the oppression of Palestinians) | Donald Johnson
▻https://mondoweiss.net/2019/08/democracy-oppression-palestinians

Israel’s defenders explain to Rashida Tlaib that it’s not anti-Semitic to criticize Israel, so long as you say it’s a vibrant democracy. So the oppression of millions of Palestinians is a golden opportunity for Israelis to show off their country. The bigotry is the same as justifying slavery by the fact that Lincoln and Douglas debated it, and Frederick Douglass was able to get in one word edgewise. Source: Mondoweiss

Israeli and US media attack centrist MIFTAH as ’radical’ group in effort to discredit Omar and Tlaib
Yumna Patel on August 21, 2019
▻https://mondoweiss.net/2019/08/israeli-centrist-discredit

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Israel and its supporters have set their sights on a new target in part of a concerted effort to discredit US Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib and their planned delegation to Palestine, after the decision to bar them entry to the country sparked nationwide outrage.

The newest focus of the right-wing media is MIFTAH, the Ramallah-based NGO that was sponsoring the planned delegation, as it has done in the past with US congressional delegations that visited the occupied West Bank.

Founded by PLO Executive Committee Member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH) is largely regarded as a mainstream, “centrist” group in Palestine.

The group’s activities focus primarily on female empowerment and self-sustainability projects, with a mission that “seeks to promote the principles of democracy and good governance within various components of Palestinian society” and “seeks to engage local and international public opinion and official circles on the Palestinian cause.”

In the wake of the backlash facing Netanyahu and his government for denying the congresswomen, the premiere released a statement alleging that the congresswomen had ulterior motives, referencing MIFTAH as “an avid supporter” of BDS.

#Ilhan_Omar #Rashida_Tlaib #BDS #MIFTAH